


Stupid Questions

by honooko



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 02:52:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honooko/pseuds/honooko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For such a smart guy, Sho asks some stupid questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stupid Questions

**Author's Note:**

> For waxrose for her birthday. <3

Sho was, at heart, a man of learning. His craving for knowledge had carried him through seemingly endless rounds of exams and into halls of academia that no one else around him outside of school seemed to even brush against. Sho was the oldest to finish high school (Ohno had barely even attended!) and the first to take his degree; some part of him had been trained to always, always seek answers for things unknown.

It was this unfortunate habit that had him asking question he didn't actually ever _want_ to know the answers to.

"Ohno," Sho heard himself saying. _Shut up, Sakurai!_ his mind shrieked. _Just stop talking!_

"Ohno, what's that on your neck?" he said. Ohno's hand flew up to brush against a red mark just under the edge of his jaw.

"Ah," he said. "Nino."

It spoke to the deep and long-lasting bonds of friendship between them when Sho found himself trying to scrub the image of his friends violently making out off his brain; a picture which had risen at the single word of Nino's name.

He really, _really_ should have known better by now.

~

Nino was so frustrating.

Sho meant it in the broader sense, of course; they all did. Nino was kind of needy and kind of bratty and very, very sincere in his love for all of them, which is why they all felt like complete dicks when someone had to pry his arms from around their neck and crap, Nino, stop _looking_ at me like that, we have to go on stage right now! It's not—I'm _sorry_ , hey, c'mon. Look, you can hold my hand, okay? Geez.

It was entirely possible Nino did it all on purpose. Sho wouldn't put it past him, although he liked to think Nino's intentions were, for the most part, good.

Ish.

"Nino," Sho said. " _Nino._ "

Nino looked up, mid-shuffle. He did not look particularly ashamed, which either meant he felt he was justified in not paying attention whatsoever, or he honestly hadn't been listening and didn't realize shame was the appropriate emotion to be displaying.

"What?" he said, and Sho determined from his tone that it was, in fact, the latter.

"You are the only person I know who can go the entire meeting without hearing a single word and still not screw it up later," Sho said.

"I hear words," Nino said, pouting. "Just not interesting ones."

Sho made a garbled sort of noise into his palm. Nino patted him on the shoulder soothingly.

"There, there," he said. "Hey, is that a grey hair?"

 _So_ frustrating.

~

Man up, Sakurai. It's just a question. Hey, Ueto-san! It was great having you on the show today! Listen, maybe we could meet up and grab drinks sometime? Or lunch, lunch is good. Lunch is great! Here's my number, you can give me a call. Or I'll call you. With your number. Which you'll give to me—I mean, if you want. You don't have to. I understand if you can't, of course, your management probably doesn't want you just passing that around. Nevermi—

 _Oh my god,_ Sho thought in horror. _I just rejected myself._

Nino laughed; there was also a female laugh. Sho frowned and sat up straighter so he could see across the sound stage. Nino was smiling his 'I am extremely charming and you just can't say no to me' smile; it was the same one that had Sho forking out lunch money for the two of them when Nino was skinny and fifteen.

Nino was still skinny, and honestly did not appear to have aged much farther than fifteen, but that was entirely beside the point. The point was that he was charming someone. Someone _female._ And from the sound of it, it was _working._

Sho scowled. He started across the stage, determined to intervene before Nino charmed some poor sweet assistant out of… something, but Nino met him halfway.

"Oh, Sho-chan!" he said brightly. He sounded surprised, as though he hadn't expected to run into Sho on the set of one of their own TV shows. He was tucking his phone into his back pocket (the right one, not the left one; he kept his cards in the left one. _Why do I even know that?_ )

"Who was that?" Sho asked. He sounded protective. Why did he sound protective? Oh, right. Hapless female assistant being charmed. Shamelessly charmed. Poor thing.

"Oh, Aya-chan," Nino said casually. "She wanted to confirm lunch next week."

"You're going out to lunch?" Sho said. "Wait, _Aya-chan?_ "

"She knows a place," Nino said vaguely, shrugging. Sho gaped.

"…How did you get her number?"

"I asked," Nino snorted. "Obviously."

It could not be that easy. It wasn't that easy! Sho had tried that, _of course_ he'd tried that! Girls said no when he tried that! It didn't work! Nino was lying! Nino was—wait.

"…Can I have it?" Sho asked as sweetly as he possibly could.

"Sorry, Sho-chan," Nino beamed at him. "I'm not that kind of girl."

Poor, _poor_ victim of Nino's cruel and misleading charms. Sho felt sorry for her, he really did.

~

 _This is not fair,_ Sho thought. And then, because he felt the words needing airing, "This is not fair."

"Suck it up," Jun mumbled. He was still on his first coffee; Sho chose to ignore Jun's early-morning lack of loving bandmate support.

" _Not fair,_ " he repeated, louder.

"What's wrong, Sho-chan?" Aiba asked with the appropriate level of concern in his voice. He squashed himself onto the couch with Sho, petting his hair in what he probably thought was a comforting manner, but actually was just messing up Sho's styling. Sho bravely bore it.

"It's Nino," Sho started, but Aiba made an understanding clucking noise, and through their bandmate bonds, Sho knew Aiba knew what he meant without him having to say it.

"I know, Sho-chan," Aiba said seriously. Sho felt a wash of affection for Aiba, his brother-in-arms. Aiba was so much smarter than anyone gave him credit for, truly. Sho knew Aiba was really a very kind person, probably the kindest person in all of Arashi.

"He's hard to handle," Aiba continued gently. Jun snorted into his coffee; Aiba and Sho, together in their suffering, ignored him. "But once you get him with his pants down, he's really quite easy."

"I can't surprise him," Sho said mournfully.

"Who said anything about surprises?" Aiba asked, confused. "Just yank. Unless he has a belt, in which case, don't yank because he gets seriously pissed off if you accidentally give him a wedgie."

"…Wait, what are we talking about?" Sho said, mirroring Aiba's confusion.

"Sleeping with Nino," Aiba said. "Wait, what are _you_ talking about?"

Sho flung himself off the couch with a shriek, and Jun (kind Jun, _gentle_ and understanding Jun) handed him a cup of coffee.

"I told you," Jun repeated. "Suck it up."

"Nino's good at that, too," Aiba said helpfully from the couch. Sho and Jun ignored him.

~

"And then he said Nino gives good head," Sho wailed at Ohno.

"He really does," Ohno agreed good-naturedly.

" _Not helping_ ," Sho growled.

"Ah, right, sorry." Ohno said. "Poor Sho-chan. Poor, poor little Sho-chan."

"When I said 'make me feel better,'" Sho said, "I actually meant 'get me drunk.'"

"This is cheaper," Ohno pointed out, patting his thigh. "But if you want, I'll get you drunk and then make a terrible decision for you so you can claim innocence tomorrow morning when Jun asks you why you look like you got hit by a truck or five."

"I can't decide if you are a terrible friend, or a really, really good one," Sho pondered out loud.

"If I get you drunk enough, I'll be your best friend in the whole world," Ohno pointed out. "Cheers!"

~

"Nino," Sho said. " _Nino._ NINO."

"It's two in the morning," Nino said. "What do you want?"

"Nino, Satoshi and I have to tell you something," Sho said. It was important. It was _really important._ "It's really important," he added.

"Oh god," Nino said. He sounded annoyed. Some part of Sho was insisting that he was being stupid and drunk, but then another part pointed out that Ohno had already graciously volunteered to be at fault, so shut up and chug.

"We looooooove you," Sho crooned. "SATOSHI. It's Nino." He held the phone out; Ohno tried to take it from him, but he missed the first four times. Finally catching it, Ohno crooned too.

"Loooooove youuuuu, Nino-chaaaaan~" he sang. Ohno has the _prettiest_ voice, Sho thought. It gets better the more tequila he drinks!

"He says to give it back to you," Ohno said, holding the phone out. Sho took it.

"Nino," he said seriously. " _Nino_ , we _love_ you."

"I am thrilled," Nino drawled. "Utterly enthralled. Charmed off my very feet, in fact."

"You don't sound chra—cahr—happy," Sho said.

"Sho-chan," Nino sighed. "Please stop drinking."

"But Ohno is pretty," Sho said, and somehow that wasn't quite what he meant to say. But it was also true, so he didn't mind.

"Do _not_ kiss him," Nino insisted. "Sho! NO KISSING."

"Jealous," Sho said. "You're jealous. Ohno's very pretty, you know. I could kiss him instead of you, because he's pretty."

"Damn it," Nino said. "Where are you? You need an adult."

"Why do I need an adult? There are strangers here," Sho said. "But no candy. Or vans. I would _like_ some candy though. Satoshi, do you want some candy?"

Ohno made a noise that was probably 'cheers', but also could have been 'I am about fifteen minutes away from passing out.'

"Nino," Sho said seriously. "This is Ohno's fault."

"Yes, yes," Nino said impatiently. "Now don't move, I'm coming to get you."

"Love youuuuu, Nino-chan~"

~

"Ohno's fault," Sho moaned, his head flat on the cool tabletop in their conference room the next morning.

"I hope you have learned from this," Nino said, putting a coldpack across the back of his neck.

 _Yes,_ Sho thought. _Ohno is not good at problem-solving, and cannot be trusted._

He tried to tell Nino, but all that came out was a whimper. Nino adjusted the coldpack.

"I know," he said. "Shush, I know."

 _No,_ Sho thought. _You don't._

He didn't say it, though.

~

He'd been watching Nino all day.

Nino was fidgety, more so than usual. He kept messing up his shuffle. Sho suspected Nino was trying to focus on the shuffle, because whenever he tried to concentrate on it, he did it wrong; he had to be relaxed, his attention somewhere else, for his hands to move the way he wanted. If Nino was focusing on magic, then something was bothering him.

At least, Sho suspected. He didn't put much faith in his ability to read Nino these days.

But if something was bothering Nino, and bothering him enough to affect his magic, then Sho thought it was probably his duty as Nino's friend to find out and try to help. Nino didn't really do that with him, but lately Nino had sort of _been_ the problem, so he couldn't really be expected to make any headway towards solving it.

Sho had a headache. He was thinking in too many words again.

He stood up and made straight for Nino. Nino was even more upset than Sho had thought; he could tell by the way Nino leaned towards him the second he sat down, like a magnet. He didn't seem to do it on purpose, either. It worried Sho. He put an arm around Nino's shoulders and guided his slump more directly against Sho's chest.

"Hey," he said. Nino slipped a shuffle; the cards fell to his lap.

"Hey," Nino said back. Sho's hand curled around the back of Nino's skull, threading through his hair. Nino sighed, leaning harder into Sho's touch.

"Nino," Sho asked. "What's wrong?"

"You're the only one who hasn't kissed me this month," Nino said.

Sho froze.

"Ohno kissed me—well, a lot of times, but most recently the other night when he was drunk. And Aiba kissed me twice last week; once when I gave him my last cigarette and once when I told him he looked like a giraffe in that scarf. He said giraffes have very mobile lips. And Jun kissed me this morning because I brought him coffee and Aiba was being too loud to deserve a reward," Nino listed.

"But you haven't," he said. "Sho-chan is the only one who won't kiss me."

Sho was wracking his brain; there had to be a safe, comforting way to answer Nino. There was some wording, some carefully thought out response which would reassure Nino that Sho's lack of face-sucking had nothing to do with Nino's value to him as a person and a friend, and that Sho did not need to kiss Nino to prove that he loved him, because that was ridiculous and their relationship was _obviously_ unconditional, and that included kissing.

Wait.

"I haven't," Sho said. "Doesn't mean I _won't._ "

Nino perked up, and Sho almost winced as Nino's charming-smile bloomed across his face. Sho felt his dignity shrinking away from the brightness. His resolve withered beside it.

"Sho-chan," Nino asked. "Do you love me?"

 _Loaded question_ , Sho thought. _Oh well._

"Yes," Sho said without hesitation, leaning down and pressing his lips to Nino's. Nino squirmed around until the angle was satisfactory, and (for a reason Sho did not even bother trying to determine, because Nino's lips were very interesting and very talented and his tongue was vying for the title of 'most entertaining part of Nino's anatomy right this very second') reached into his pocket.

When they stopped kissing, Aiba shouted at them across the room to take off their tops so he could stuff money in their pants. Nino looked unsettlingly tempted by the offer, so Sho interrupted him.

"What's in your hand?" he asked, hoping it wasn't something obscene. Nino had done that a couple times before. But Nino just picked up Sho's hand and pressed something papery into his palm, and let go. Sho opened his hand.

"Aya-chan says call her sometime," Nino laughed as Sho gaped at the scrawled phone number. "Wear a suit vest, she has a kink."

Sho looked at the number for a heartbeat more, before pushing it back into Nino's hand. Nino looked at him, confused.

"I don't need it anymore," Sho said simply, pecking Nino on the lips.

"If you say so," Nino said. "By the way, I spilled Jun's first coffee on your coat this morning. He's out for your blood 'cause I told him you did it."

Sho really should have known better, by now.


End file.
